


SnK Chapter 77a: Titanwin

by Lustfulcat



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-01
Updated: 2016-02-01
Packaged: 2018-05-17 16:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5878387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lustfulcat/pseuds/Lustfulcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Desperate times call for desperate measures; Levi makes good use of the titan serum.</p><p>A continuation from chapter 77 of the manga.</p>
            </blockquote>





	SnK Chapter 77a: Titanwin

Levi woke to ash and screaming, senses going from dull to full blast as he sat straight up, limbs flooding with adrenaline. 

Everything around him was burning, broken, the house he’d been standing on splintered, Shiganshina further degraded into rubble, glimpses of the ruined city peering at him through smoke and steam.

 _Erwin_.

The last thing Levi remembered was looking up at the Commander as Bertholdt sailed overhead, realizing what was coming and knowing without a doubt that Erwin realized it too; at that speed devastation was unavoidable. 

Levi barely had time to hang on. 

Pushing away debris he staggered to his feet, ears still ringing from the blast, the bone-shivering wails of the injured nothing but distant echoes as he stared with wide eyes at a scorched and cracked Wall Maria. 

Without Erwin at the top. 

Levi ran faster than he ever had, launching himself over the piles of former homes, threading through regenerating Titans as if they were standing still. The world streaked by in a blur; he was only motion, nothing but a single goal, a single thought that slowly became a mantra of fear. 

 _Erwin_. 

He knew he had greater responsibilities, that there were several titan shifters wreaking havoc on whomever and whatever was left, that his squad, his _friends_ , needed his help, but Levi was outside himself. Right now he was a machine, deadly and sharp, everything focused on 

 _Erwin._  

Landing so hard his bones rattled, Levi began to claw his way through the base of the wall, desperate for any sign, looking for a glint of gold among crimson-streaked grey and black. The earth shook, roars deafening the landscape and reaching through the haze, but Levi stayed a well-oiled machine, hands bleeding as he lifted and threw and kicked and tore, climbing and searching, almost at the end of his gas before he saw them. 

Erwin’s fingers peeking out of a pile of rubble. 

Levi would know them anywhere; he had watched them trace his body too many times to count, had studied them in those seldom and sacred times they’d sat quietly hand-in-hand. He tried not to think about those moments as he pulled Erwin free, knowing that the man had been blown almost a mile from the wall and his chances of survival were slim to none. Their death had always been a certainty but it was still a stake through the chest to hold Erwin in his arms as the man shuddered, blood trickling from his mouth. 

“Le-vi…” he choked, making a sound that Levi knew was a death rattle. The fire in his eyes was fading; he didn’t have much time. 

Erwin reached for him, grasping his arm with surprising strength. 

“We ha-ve,” he tried, losing too much blood too fast, crimson soaking Levi’s pants and dripping to the ground. “Have…to…” 

“Shut up, Erwin.” Reaching into his coat, Levi refused to look at the mangled mess that was his lover, concentrating on the task at hand. This had to count; they were nothing without Erwin. 

 _Depending on the situation, you would also have to decide…_  

 _He_ was nothing without Erwin. 

 _On whom to use it._  

Humanity didn’t know that their Strongest derived his strength from Erwin’s vision.  Without it they would all be in the dark. 

 _Will you take this on?_  

And Levi was humanity’s strength but Erwin was its future, no matter how much he’d deny it. 

 _If you’re able to realize your dream…what will you do afterwards?_  

“N-No!” Erwin croaked once he saw the case, blood spraying from his lips and freckling Levi’s cravat, his arm twitching and going limp, unable to reach out again. 

Strangely calm, Levi prepared the syringe, Hange’s instructions echoing in his head and guiding his hands. He ignored Erwin’s steady protests, ignored how they dissolved into soft garbled nonsense, ignored that this might be their final moments together. 

But he couldn’t ignore the look in those blue eyes as he grabbed Erwin’s forearm and plunged the needle in without hesitation, shooting a last chance through his veins. 

_I don’t care if you hate me for this. I will help you realize your dream._

Levi’s breath seemed loud in his ears as he watched, waiting for something to happen, and doubt began to sweep in when Erwin suddenly seized, his body racking and twisting, the movements fierce for someone who had been so close to death heartbeats ago. Levi hung on, gritting his teeth, not sure if he should pull back. 

Until Erwin arched, his spine harshly bowed, then went limp. 

“Shit,” Levi grasped at Erwin’s chest. “Shit. _Shit_. _SHIT_.” He looked for a pulse, for a breath, for anything. 

The ground rattled around them as Shiganshina came to her end along with Erwin, and Levi knelt in the smoke, frozen as he clutched Erwin’s bloody shirt, eyes wide and disbelieving, doubt growing and swallowing him whole. 

Did Kenny really give him the serum? Did Hange’s tests render it useless? Did he do something wrong? Why didn’t it work? 

He stared unseeing at the battered terrain in front of them. 

 _Why didn’t it work?_  

Distracted and despairing, he was easily flung backwards by the white hot explosion, air rushing past his ears before he knew what was going on. For a split-second he thought he saw something rising from the smoke before he thudded against a tree, pain shooting through the back of his head, sparks flying at the edges of his sight before everything went black. 

**********

“ _…evi_.” 

Levi felt like he was spinning as he rose to consciousness and held back the need to vomit as someone shook him violently. 

“Wake up, Levi! We need you. _Now_.” Hange’s voice had an urgency that snapped his eyes open and along with sight came memory. 

 _Erwin_. _It worked._

“Where is he?” Levi croaked, letting Hange help him to his feet. Blood caked the side of his face and he had a wicked headache but otherwise nothing was broken. His gear even made it, although the tanks were on empty. 

“The other side of the wall, toward Rose.” Hange handed him a few long silver cartridges. 

“How long was I out?” He restocked, freezing as a deep booming roar tore through the city. 

Hange looked torn between elation and fear. “Long enough for Erwin to eat the Beast Titan.” 

Levi flicked wide eyes to them, shock across his face. “And the other two? Where is everyone else?” 

“Eren’s hardening ability was what kept all of us and some of Shiganshina from disintegrating. He took the brunt of the blast and is alive but barely. Reiner and Bertholdt are dead –” 

“By Eren’s hands?” Levi broke free of the shock and started hobbling through toward the wall, his stride getting stronger with each step. 

“No,” Hange stated almost smugly. “By Erwin’s.” 

Levi stopped short. “What? He killed _all_ of them?” 

Another core-rattling roar shook the earth as Hange looked at him, a slow eerie smile spreading across their face, sanity leaving their eyes. 

“Easily. Levi, he’s the biggest titan we’ve ever seen!” 

**********

To say that Erwin was majestic would be an understatement. Over seventy meters tall, his titan was imposing, terrifying, a blue-eyed beast with a roar that made the ground tremble. His extraordinary will had transferred into his form giving him palpable prescence; he was downright awe-inspiring.   

Levi almost slammed into the side of a broken house when he first caught sight of the golden-haired titan, its head and torso visible above the wall, intelligence flickering in kaleidoscope eyes that were larger than the captain was tall. 

“Is he _Erwin_?” Levi asked, righting himself and shooting cables into a nearby rooftop, continuing on. 

“He’s trying,” Hange replied, sailing next to him. They looked bloody and war torn, streaked with grime and soot, the top of their right leg wrapped tightly, red staining the bandages. “He hasn’t killed anyone other than the shifters but after he ate the Beast Titan something changed.” 

Erwin was struggling, that much was clear. In-between roars he punched the top of Wall Maria, sending stone and debris out from the ramparts in a cloud, then grasped his head as if it hurt, as if he couldn’t find purchase within his own mind. Even though Erwin was incredibly resourceful and wise this was still his first time in Titan form; it would be difficult for anyone to maintain reason, especially after having the enemy for dinner. They needed to remove him immediately; if Erwin continued to run rampant Wall Maria would be reclaimed and destroyed in the same day. 

“We have to get him out!” Hange yelled, echoing his concern as they reached the base of the wall. 

“So get him out,” Levi shot back as they began to scale the stone, criss-crossing to avoid the rubble while maintaining a safe distance from Erwin’s looming form. 

“We can’t get near him.” 

“What about Mikasa–” 

“It’s not a matter of force. He’s radiating something. Anyone who gets too close either vomits or passes out. Or both.” 

Hange’s voice disappeared behind Levi as he soared over the top of the wall, securing his cables so he hung down a few feet on the other side. Crouching sideways against the stone he paused for a moment and took a good look at his creation. 

Erwin’s titan was similar to Reiner’s in that cords of tendons joined his neck and shoulders, wrapping around his arms and legs, accenting the well-developed muscles; however, Erwin looked more animalistic than human. His fingers were tapered and clawlike, that blond hair long, tousled in the halo of a lion’s mane, and those large cobalt eyes practically glowed fluorescent, gleaming unnaturally through the haze. 

Steam didn’t coil off his body; instead, he seemed to reflect light. Glow would be too strong of a word but there was something about the monster before him that was unlike all the other titans. It wasn’t surprising, considering who he was and whom he’d eaten, the combination producing something unique, something godlike. 

Levi was strangely proud. 

“Let me rephrase that.” Hange planted feet next to Levi, standing horizontally against the wall as well. “ _You_ need to get him out. Carefully. He’s been in there awhile.” 

“He’s a shifter now,” Levi stonewalled, checking his gear again. “He can grow anything back.” 

“We’re not completely sure about that.” 

“ _Tch._ ” Levi could see the other members of the Survey Corps, including his squad, dotting the landscape, watching just as they were. More than a few had soiled the front of their uniforms and several unconscious ones were being tended to. 

“What about the basement?” 

“It’s still standing thanks to Eren but we were rerouted by bigger problems.” Erwin punctuated Hange’s statement by roaring and punching the wall again. The two of them stood firm against the blowback, squinting through the dust. 

Hange sighed. “He was dying, wasn’t he?” 

Levi didn’t answer, studying the titan’s movements instead, planning when to jump. 

“You made the right decision,” was the last thing he heard as he anchored and took flight, heading toward Erwin like an arrow shot from a crossbow. Even though he expected it once he got within a few dozen feet the dizziness hit him hard, twisting his stomach, and he was forced to land on a broken stone jutting from the top of the wall. 

“Stop acting like a brat!” Levi shouted, fighting off a brutal wave of nausea that staggered him as he clung to the rock, unsure if his voice could reach the titan over its rumbling. 

But that enormous arm stopped in mid-swing, eyes sweeping to the side, enveloping Levi, and for a split-second they looked relieved. 

 _Did he think I was dead? He was rampaging because of me?_  

“I don’t die as easily as you do. Quit being a huge pain in the ass.” The world began to spin as Levi edged closer, watching as Erwin’s focus went within and he began to grasp at his head again with a long drawn-out hurricane of a roar. 

Holding back bile with a long breath through his teeth, Levi clutched the stone he leaned on, using it to push forward inch by inch. 

“Erwin, listen to my voice,” he growled. “Remember who you are.” 

Levi knew the next step forward was a mistake but he made it anyway. At this point whatever was emanating from Erwin was too strong and everything grayed at the edges, fading out. The next thing he expected to feel was his face slamming into the stone. 

But instead he felt wind then something oddly soft. And warm. As Levi came to he realized that the nameless fog was lifting, his nausea ebbing away. Apparently all Levi had to do to get Erwin to establish control was pass out. 

That did not make Levi happy. Neither did the fact that he was cushioned in Erwin’s gigantic hand, across one and a half fingers to be exact. Heat radiated from the titan’s skin, the kind of heat one would feel in front of a cozy fire, or outside on a summer day. It was comfortable. Embarrassingly comfortable. 

“Are you finished playing titan?” Levi snapped, knowing that if Erwin remembered this he would never let him live it down. 

Long busy eyebrows that swept into Erwin’s mane curved up, and Levi ignored the fact that a _Titan_ was looking at him like a puppy dog. Clicking his tongue he stood and walked up the length of that luminous arm, stopping on Erwin’s shoulder and staring at the nape, knowing the importance of where he laid his blades. Erwin studied him from the corner of one lake-blue eye. 

“We’re going to that basement and you’re coming with us,” was all the warning Levi gave before he sliced through the thick flesh, carving out a flap and peeling back. Within seconds Erwin was visible and although Levi knew he was in there it was still a relief to see his body, as disturbingly tethered as it was. Thankfully Levi had practice in pulling Eren free and was working his way through the tough cords when Hange landed beside him once again, assisting while the others held back, probably by their orders. 

Erwin flitted into consciousness as he left his titan vessel, the shell melting away into a smoking pile of bone and ash once its pilot was removed. Hange mourned its demise with a hysterical wail before helping Levi move Erwin to a clear area on top of the wall. Unclasping his torn cape, Levi laid it over his lover’s almost-naked form. The Commander’s uniform was in scraps; however, his bolo tie still sat securely around his neck, the only thing to make it out whole. 

“Le..vi…” Spacey, as if he were drugged, Erwin reached out and grabbed his captain’s face with both hands. 

 _Both_ hands. 

A small smile dusted Levi’s features as he looked down on a living breathing Erwin. 

“I told you to stay behind.” He laid his hand over Erwin’s right, not caring who saw them. Half of the Survey Corps knew or suspected anyway and Levi didn’t give a shit what they thought; the only thing that mattered was that Erwin was _alive_. 

“I’m glad…I didn’t listen.” Erwin’s eyes still maintained their glow from his titan form, and although they had always been layered now they were downright encyclopedic, intense even in his post-titan fog.

Levi found it strange that Erwin hadn’t asked about the basement; it was one of their main priorities, a point of the mission. For a moment he worried that the titan serum had altered Erwin’s mind and then goosebumps rippled across his skin. 

“I ate him…and I…know…” Erwin slurred through the fatigue, his grip on Levi’s face going slack. Hange knelt beside them, eyes wide. 

“You know _what_ , Erwin?” they asked as Levi placed Erwin’s hands comfortably on the cloak, his own still resting atop the right. “You’re not part of the Reiss lineage so you shouldn’t have gained memories–” 

Hange stopped with a sharp gasp. 

“Unless,” they said slowly, thinking aloud, “the Beast Titan was something entirely different.” 

Levi shivered with realization. Erwin hadn’t asked about the basement because they didn’t need it anymore. It was no longer their goal. 

“Y-Yes, it was…” wrapping his fingers around Levi’s, Erwin squeezed them with what little strength he had left. 

“And now…I know…” a wild smile worked its way through the exhaustion, lighting up Erwin’s face with something close to madness, and it shook Levi to the marrow, “how to save humanity.”

**Author's Note:**

> ffftttt look at my headcanons and how they take liberties.
> 
> Please talk to me about the Eruris and their dork husband status:  
> world-war-eruri.tumblr.com  
> @WorldWarEruri


End file.
